


Enculturation

by seatbeltdrivein



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Community: fanfic_bakeoff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-14
Updated: 2011-03-14
Packaged: 2017-10-16 23:33:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/170563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seatbeltdrivein/pseuds/seatbeltdrivein
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria tries to make sense of Xing's strange culture—and fails.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enculturation

Xing was gorgeous, everything a girl could want. Maria was neck-deep in it, a guest in the palace. She didn't even have to speak because servants were everywhere, responding to her needs like they had a direct connection to her mind.

Frankly, it was disturbing.

"I—no! I just want to go for a walk, that's all. See?" Maria pointed to the doors, shuffling her feet awkwardly, hoping the baffled-looking man trying to hand her a towel would get the hint.

He pushed the towel at her again. Maria bit her tongue and took the damn thing, all smiles.

Xing was everything a girl could want, but since when had Maria been a _normal_ girl?

The clothes, fortunately, were light and durable, nothing like the heavy fabric of her military fatigues. When she'd first arrived, she'd felt fifty pounds heavier, dragging her ass from one end of the city to the other, accompanied by a covering of sweat and sand and god-only-knew what else.

She stood out like a sore thumb in the city streets. The eyes following her set her on edge, a constant itching sensation that drove her to keep a hand on the gun hidden beneath her loose tunic.

The worst part was something so out of place, so— _bizarre_ that Maria didn't even know what to think, just kept her eyes on anything that wasn't a naked woman.

There.

She said it.

 _Xing was full of naked women._

Women walked around shirtless, unbothered that their breasts were just—there, bouncing and on display like they were working girls in the seedier parts of Central. Maria had stared the first time she saw a woman like that, unable to look away. The woman looked back at her and winked.

Xingian culture was bound to give her an ulcer.


End file.
